We published @taylorcarik.bsky.social on ordinary life in Minneapolis this week www.liberalcurrents.com/so-hows-the-... And then interviewed @whstancil.bsky.social for the view from a rapid responder www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

The Spirit of the Laws: “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” James Madison. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

"Neighbors in neon vests dot the neighborhood... Information-sharing networks have been built. Residents have connected with non-profits and churches to deliver food to people who are locked in their homes out of fear. Resistance signs are everywhere..." www.liberalcurrents.com/so-hows-the-...

Liberal Currents is the sixth biggest publication!....to be shared on @seabirdreader.bsky.social in 2025

When the racist meme becomes national policy

The Spirit of the Laws…

“Perhaps the most fundamental moves have been aimed at increasing the president’s de facto power (i.e. his control over the informal fourth branch of government: the administrative state, or what MAGA calls the ‘the deep state’).” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

A very generous donor last night donated $5,000, pushing us up another percentage point. We're less than $10k away from 40% of our goal, a very significant milestone for doing what we want to this year. Please help us get there! gofund.me/8df9f2204

More on what is happening at Texas A&M: In the “Symposium,” Plato describes homosexuality as fully natural and suggests that there are more than two genders. That’s enough to trouble the government and warrant school scrutiny: www.ms.now/opinion/plat...

It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

New @liberalcurrents.com: Liberals stand for the energetic and disruptive expression of unpopular, reviled, and at times caustic ideas, without fear of official state reprisal, and to the benefit of freedom and progress in society. www.liberalcurrents.com/cancel-cultu...

One reason resource imperialism doesn’t work in the modern world is that wealth of nations is mainly built on human rather natural resources. Countries that do not tie their economic fate to oil are generally more dynamic.

Trump says oil money “will be controlled by me,” and as CNN reports may deposit the proceeds in offshore bank accounts. By what authority? His. He told the Times: “I don’t need international law.” This is the founders’ nightmare come true after 250 years of existence.

A donor has asked to pay for five one-month trials to our Community Subscriber tier. This includes: -Discord access -The Opposition Report -The Editors Chat Please email writers @ liberalcurrents dot com if you'd like to be one of these five. First five in get it.

As discussed in my article, under the existing Labor government scheme set to come into force from April, rates for pubs will rise by 76% over three years (the equivalent of £12,900) and an amazing 115% for hotels.

Called it.

Matt Walsh doesn’t just categorise Somalis as ‘low-IQ’, as @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com points out, he says that this ‘mental retardation’ makes them unworthy of moral protection (as seen below): the ‘lesbian agitator’ died in vain for people of little intelligence.

Trump’s incoherent State capitalism: oil companies being asked to act like state-owned-enterprises and disregard short term profit for political, fiscal, or geopolitical goals. responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-oil/

“For one thing, a US president who is willing to bomb another sovereign nation and exfiltrate its leader is not someone who shows much respect for rules and conventions (however nasty the seized president might be).”

Readings this week…

It’s not enough, says Constant, to weaken the power of the executive. One must also strengthen the moral power of society. As this new @liberalcurrents.com article contends, “without virtuous public officials, constitutional limits will have their limits.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-spirit-o...

‘Even if Maduro illegally seized power and is guilty of criminal conduct, those facts don’t create lawful justification to use military force against Venezuela. Nonviolent means (economic and diplomatic sanctions) are the only legal response under international law’. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

“We live in a world…that is governed by strength, force, and power” says Mr. Miller. This moment “illustrates how people like Mr. Miller have ascended to the inner circle of a leader who has no interest in having his impulses checked.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/u...

‘‘As had authoritarians before him, Trump saw himself as a maverick who could dispense with laws that less powerful individuals had to follow,’’ says @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social. Part of the failure of Congress is not to see to it that Trump feels himself as weak—if not weaker—than previous occupants.

Noted in my previous @liberalcurrents.com article that the logic of liberalism dictates that statesmen must be made weak to protect society from the distorting effects of power. I offer a more fulsome defence of this view: www.liberalcurrents.com/the-logic-of...

Since 2023, U.S immigration has fallen by 85%. It has fallen by 50% to 1.2mn people in the EU, and by 75% in the U.K. This comes at a time when both the U.K and Europe depend on immigrants to produce population growth.

Generation X (those born between 1966 and 1980, sandwiched between boomers and millennials) are under harsher financial pressure than boomers to provide for the needs of both their children and parents at a time when the costs of university and elderly care outstrip average family incomes.

Maduro’s mismanagement of the economy has devastated the nation’s golden egg: oil. Crude production plunged more than 70% since its peak in the late 1990s. This despite the fact that the Orinoco Belt oil reserves contains more than 15% of the world’s oil.

How authoritarians destroyed the Venezuelan economy: the country’s GDP is less than one-fifth of Colombia’s after shrinking an astonishing 78% in dollar terms.

Tech sector has never been culturally stronger and more emotionally exuberant. This dual fact is reflected in investor confidence: according to one estimate, spending on AI accounted for 92% of America’s GDP growth in the first half of 2025.

Working on two articles explaining liberal ideas behind executive curtailment, but for now do note that my family in the Dominican Republic already knew this was going to happen. Local news picked up on military build up at base in Puerto Plata 2weeks ago. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

AI spending set to exceed $660bn by 2030, but corporate adoption is down (currently fewer than 15% of US companies use AI). Tech companies are now borrowing to finance AI splurge, and banking on mass layoffs (replacing 40% of tasks, creating 20% unemployment) to makeup for risky investment.

This graphic overturns the popular impression that youth is synonymous with progressive politics. It might rather confirms the idea that youth is associated with rebelliousness: MAGA values/attitudes are perhaps seen by young men as more transgressive of social norms.

Diploma divide/urban v rural sorting is real: more racially diversified, college-educated, and urban areas voted for Dems, while homogenous rural areas voted for Repub. That said, as @jacobhacker.bsky.social notes, economics isn’t everything: Latinos voted GOP for ‘family values’.

Excellent article making a bold, unsettling claim—the administration views the history of segregation and its influence on the nation as a threat to its nativist program—and backing it up with detailed technicality on the political stakes of disparate impact liability. Great work.

Sobering thought from Robert Burgess: “A nation’s currency is not much different than a company’s share price in that it’s probably the best indicator of sentiment. If so, the US is in trouble.”

This is one of the clearest examples of how affectively polarized individuals go on to poison public life. Here tribal emotions rule, principles are absent, and the process of reason-giving is undercut.

We have hit 32% towards our goal. It's an incredible amount to have raised for a publication our size. Thank you all so much for your continued support. Happy Holidays! gofund.me/6a59f06f4

George Will, a pessimist by temperament, offers this biting view of the year 2025.

As we debate and argue, may we never forget or neglect the humanity of others. May we recognize in others something of the human, one who errs just as we do. There is no liberal who is not first liberal at heart: generous. Richard Hofstadter understood this. We can too. Merry Christmas to you all.

Just back from leading Xmas eve service at our tiny rural church. You better believe we talked about baby Jesus having to be hustled across a border as a refugee to escape the secret police of the repulsive king, with the wise men helping. A subversive from the manger on--merry Christmas y'all!

As Samir Varma knows firsthand, socialism was bankrupting both the Soviet Union and every other ‘third world’ country foolish enough to stick to it. As usual, the cost of this intellectual stubbornness was prolonged pain for ordinary people.

This to me is the best article of 2025. Samir Varma’s offers a riveting account of how India’s embrace of socialism brought the country to the precipice and how three Oxbridge-educated geniuses had the independence of mind to adopt market reforms before it was late. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

France is the only nation in the rich world where pensioners have higher average incomes than the working age population, and where, according to analyst François Valentin, pensions ensure that the country is able to meet Nato’s 2% target for military spending.

According to James Kanagasooriam, the AI revolution may trigger a “collar flip”: white-collar workers who live in rich locales will see their financial prospects diminish in the next 10 years, while blue collar workers will be in higher demand. The college-educated ‘left-behind’ may revolt.

The Great Reversal: “While once it was Germany flooding China with cars and machines, the direction reversed after Covid-19, with German car exports to China slumping 70% between 2022 and 2024.”

Last readings before Christmas @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social @yappelbaum.bsky.social @jamesmbradley.bsky.social

"The Chinese Communist Party is shaping AI in the country to reflect its political priorities and societal constraints. China’s ambitions for global AI governance should be understood and evaluated against that backdrop," write @jordicalbad.bsky.social and @mchangama.bsky.social.

Fareed Zakaria sees the National Security Policy as the strange pursuit of an economically stagnant (and Ruchir Sharma points out, politically volatile) Latin America at a time when being such a regional power offers little advantage to the U.S., especially in the emerging multipolar world.

Russell Vought moved to slash funding for the organization that made possible the medical relief of his own daughter. No one can accuse this bureaucrat of sentimental partiality. It is ruthless reason of state.